By the Firelight

The next few weeks came past rather quick for Lily. It seemed like no time at all when it was early November. The weather had become considerably colder and an icy draft was common among the air whenever students were to go out into the grounds.

Lily continued to patrol the corridors whether James was there or not, sometimes he was delayed because of Quidditch practise. Lily didn't particularly mind, she had gotten slightly warmer to James and had even managed to not loose her temper with him since their last feud, even though he did sometimes annoy her.

Herra and Sandra were still angry at each other. They were boty unable to pass without exchanging lethal glances and muttering obscenities under their breaths. Lily didn't feel the situation was worth attempting to mediate; she too didn't like Sandra, but would prefer to keep it under wraps- rather then cause another argument.

Sandra had kept her promise to stay away from Sirius. And instead had became closer to James, who seemed like he didn't mind one bit, unlike the rest of the male students who had took to shooting furtive glances when they thought James was not watching. Herra would often come out glowing after a conversation with Sirius, and Lily didn't completely see why they weren't going out yet. She knew Herra would jump at the chance to go out with Sirius, but 'she didn't want to sound desperate and ask him herself'- as she had put it in a previous conversation.

On one of the first nights of November, Lily found herself patrolling the corridors- without James, as he was at Quidditch practise. Lily supposed he was practising for the game against Hufflepuff the next week. She stopped short by a small window in the western area of the school and just visible by squinting was the Gryffindor Quidditch team, hovering like red blurs across the Quidditch pitch. Lily had never kindled to playing Quidditch, she preferred to watch and show support, but playing was an entirely different thing. She turned from the window just as a player made an impressive dive towards a very small hovering piece of gold- The Golden Snitch. She suspected the player was James, as he was of course the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team and an extremely good Seeker with excellent reflexes- and he made no mistake in making sure everyone knew it, especially Lily.

She continued to walk. A slight chill was wafting through the corridors, but was nevertheless pleasantly panging against her skin. She suddenly heard a quiet murmur impending from the adjacent Charms classroom to the left; she stopped walking and hesitantly listened.

The classroom door was slightly ajar, so Lily quietly walked towards it and leaned against the polished surface, listening intently. She could hear a soft feminine voice from inside, followed by a much more deeper masculine voice.

"It should work out right," said the soft voice.

"Good, I knew I could count on you to not mess this up," said the other voice stonily.

She stood silent for a moment as probing thoughts sifted through her head, who did the voices belong to and what were they talking about? Lily contemplated whether to peer inside and take a look, but she found herself glued to the spot. Perhaps she recognised the first voice, but certainly not the second.

No further voices processed from the room. She quietly crouched down and inched forward to look through the narrow gap between the door and its frame, however, as she peered in she saw no one in the room. All was empty except for the few wooden desks arranged, different magical objects that were spread out displayed in cabinets across the room and a large brick fireplace. The hearth's fire was absently flickering with weak amber flames. Perhaps someone had just disconnected to the floo network after communicating with someone else. Lily frowned, the person (supposing it was two-way) still had to be in the room, unless the floo network was used to transport that person somewhere else, but Lily always thought the fires were blocked at Hogwarts. She leaned in closer, and just managed to hold her balance as the balls of her feet began to ache from the weight they were holding.

Maybe she was reading too much into it? However, that possibly could be the outcome from being rather nosy and intruding in on the private conversation.

Perplexed, she stood up and leaned back against the doorframe. She considered whether to enter the classroom and look around herself, it would be the right thing to do as Head Girl.

The tap of footsteps echoed from behind her, and she quickly rotated herself round to come into view with Sandra. She was wearing her Quidditch robes which were splattered with mud and dirt, but her face and hair remained unflawed.

"Oh, Lily, sorry. I just come back from practise, I didn't mean to startle you," she said, not sounding particularly honest.

Lily only nodded and Sandra quickly brushed passed her, her footsteps tapping across the floor. The familiar chimes sounded and Lily sighed before turning and making her way back to the Gryffindor common room.

-x-